Weblog and Playground of Gord Fynes

Since I more than likely won’t be doing any last minute music shopping this year, here’s the obligatory Top Ten CDs list for the year (in no particular order, of course):

The Notwist – Neon Golden

Cornelius – Point

Antibalas – Talkatif

Jaga Jazzist – A Livingroom Hush

Ms. John Soda – No P or D

Antipop Consortium – Arrhythmia

Chicago Underground Duo – Axis and Alignment

Wilco – Yankee Hotel Foxtrot

The Cinematic Orchestra – Every Day

RJD2 – Deadringer

Honourable mentions go to any EPs that Mr. Scott Herren released and/or produced (yes, even that one). Here’s hoping for a full-lengther in 2003.

A happy and safe New Year’s to all.

Congratulations Drew and Amanda on the recent(ly announced) engagement!

Here’s hoping that everyone had a happy and safe Christmas and that y’all got what you wanted (or didn’t know you wanted, but really needed). The holiday season got off to a shaky start but smoothed out just in time for some shitty driving weather Christmas day. The usual one hour drive to the in-laws turned into two hours, complete with fogging windows and loathsome highway driving. Everything else after that was great.

Our pals Val, Dave and their new son Nico made the trek to Toronto from NYC just in time before the big storm hit (lucky for them). My brother was re-routed to Jersey on his way to T.O. and was stuck on the tarmac for three hours. Hey, that sounds like fun – hope the drink cart came around.

After catching up with good friends, a few beers and some CD shopping (the Wire’s 20th Anniversary Box) the time came for the “Introducing Nico” party, which we hosted for our friends, their friends and family. Such a wonderful afternoon was spent playing with the kids, chatting with friends, seeing some familiar faces, sipping a few beverages and inhaling baking sheets of nachos, cheese, green onions and salsa.

Happy Birthday Elliot!

Okay, it’s now official. I have a two-year-old. He even says his own age now. I’m told that the terrible-twos are nothing compared to what’s in store as children get older. Thanks for the encouragement everyone!

The boy has taken an interest in the acoustic guitar when I bring it out to do some strumming along with the Robyn Hitchcock DVD. Naturally, I bought him a soprano ukulele so we could jam (he also air drums to Wilco). I foolishly attempted to tune the “instrument” which in turn caused the bridge to pop clean off the body. Nothing that some crazy glue couldn’t fix. The main attraction turned out to be an Ikea wooden train set given to him by his great auntie and great grandparents (that’s why they’re so great!) which kept him occupied for hours.

Now that the birthday has come and gone, it’s time to start with the Christmas crap with less than a week to go.

Happy Birthday Dad!

As you can see from the picture adorning this page, I have recently acquired a new toy – the Canon Powershot S230. Holy shit, what a great little camera! First off, I’ve now made the leap from the Fujifilm Finepix 1300 (a 1.3 megapixel) to this little beauty that packs a cool 3.2 megapixels. It’s not very apparent in the picture on the this page as I’ve obviously turned the flash off for the mirror shot, but the details and crispness of the photos this thing takes are amazing. Sorry if I’m gushing – I have been using a lesser camera for almost two years now. Another great bonus is the ability to capture dot-avi movies at roughly fifteen frames per second, with pretty good sound for such a tiny, pinhole sized mircrophone built in. The amount of video depends on the memory card. I’ve taken some Elliot interview-type movies that have been about a minute each. 128meg card to now be added to the wishlist.

Our NYC friends Dave, Val and their son Nicolas are coming here for the holidays. We’re excited to finally meet Nico in person and let the boys hang out together. Elliot will probably introduce him to Bob the Builder as he has been a fave around here for quite some time now.

The G4 is running like a charm. Thanks in part to the somewhat current version of TechTool Pro 3, some strong coffee and the patience and understanding of my wife and son. Now if only I didn’t have to stare at the clunky ol’ 1705 monitor. Man, this thing takes up more space than my parent’s first microwave oven. Remember when those first became popular in the early 80s? Now, picture the counterspace it took up. I may as well have a television set sitting on my desk!

With Elliot’s second birthday fast approaching, we haven’t even started the scrambling involved in planning/organizing for a party. With numero uno last year being quite the success, we’ll hopefully get it together in time for an ass-kicking sequel.

We’re starting to get used to using control strip (finally) and are finding it useful for keeping the desktop relatively clutter-free. I know, big deal.